re: Give me your Will Wade season grade

quote:

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In a vacuum the players are all singularly talented but they don’t work well as a team.

There isn’t a guy on the team that I say consistently makes his teammates better, and it plays out in the losses.

Examine the losses. Most of them you will find low team assists ( less than 11 or so) or terrible shooting percentage. That’s because instead of a true PG you have out of control Thomas who dominates the ball, shoots poorly most nights & doesn’t pass the ball.

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Sure you would like to see better sharing of the basketball. But (and I know you'll disagree) that isn't really what is killing this team. They had 13 assist vs. Auburn...yet scored 104 and won by 20+. They had only 11 assist vs. a good Tennessee defense, yet still shot 52%. They had 10 assist vs. Arkansas. But still shot 52% and scored 92.

While some nights more than others it almost always comes back to defense (or lack thereof). In their 7 lossses this season they have allowed opponents to shoot an effective FG% of (on average) 56%. That is incredibly tough to overcome...even if they have a good night offensively.

Because LSU rarely plays good defense it forces their offense to be "on" every night. On the relatively few nights the offense struggles it is magnified 10 fold because they have no defense to fall back on. The numbers simply don't lie. Take a snapshot of the Kenpom top 40. NO ONE has a greater disparity between their offensive numbers and their defensive numbers. (Currently 7/152)

I'm tired of listing to Wade talk about "we're playing good defense in practice"; or "if we just do this defensively we'll be fine"; or "our first shot defense is pretty good". NO! You're defense is complete dog shite and it has been for 2 years (and it wasn't that good in the two years before that).

We can whine about "sharing the basketball" all we want. The reality is terrible defense is why the lose. Terrible defense combined with the relatively few nights they struggle offensively is why the get blown out.

C-

INC

I’d say C for year to date, teetering on C- though. This has been his worst year at LSU coaching by far, but he’s been phenomenal, B+ and higher, every other year here IMO.

Interested in seeing year over year comparison of our record in ‘close’ (<5 pt maybe?) games over Wade’s tenure. This team is definitely missing a steady and high IQ/dominant at times, leader guy likeWaters or Mays. Watford was hoped to be that... and when he is, those rare few occasions, we look capable of beating anyone. But most of the times he’s not and that’s on CWW. Big gamble to take but if Watford can look like fuggin Lebron James you take it.

Then theres having this veteran team with some guys who can knock down open looks and others who can be tenacious rebounders but we green light a freshmen to take 20 shots a game from anywhere. He’s good and that will win you 70% of games and get you a spot in the tourney, but that’s detrimental to morale I imagine. Especially those 30% of games where he’s ice cold and hoisting up fadeaways off the dribble.

I’m a fan of WW though, huge LSU bball supporter and will be rooting them on hopefully into mid April.

*and Flagging this so I can come back when the season ends